The Wendell Pierce-produced Broadway drama “Clybourne Park” has been nominated for four Tony Awards. Described by New York Magazine critic Scott Brown as a “dyspeptic mini-epic of race, rage, and real estate,” the play won nominations, announced Tuesday (May 1), for Best Play, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play (Jeremy Shamos), Best Scenic Design of a Play (Daniel Ostling) and Best Direction of a Play (Pam MacKinnon).

THE TIMES-PICAYUNE ARCHIVE Wendell Pierce

Pierce, a New Orleans native who stars as trombonist Antoine Batiste in “Treme,” was in Mid-City shooting a scene for the upcoming third season of HBO drama when he got news of the nominations.

“It’s a real honor,” Pierce said in a telephone interview from the “Treme” set. “The thing I love about it the most is, as a producer, it’s just as creative for me as an actor. It’s not just a business deal. To see that play, with those actors, with that direction, that conglomerate of artists coming together -- it’s the vision you invest in, also. It feels just as satisfying creatively for me.”

Written by Bruce Norris, the play, a 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner, is set in a home in the fictional Chicago neighborhood of Clybourne Park, and takes place in two acts set 50 years apart. In act one, set in 1959, the drama revolves around a black family moving into the mostly white neighborhood. Act two, set in 2009, addresses white gentrification of what has become a predominately black neighborhood.

The drama is loosely inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun.” It opened off-Broadway in February 2010, and played in London before moving to Los Angeles, then onto its current Broadway run.

“That’s the thing that makes it even more sweet,” said Pierce of the play’s themes. “It’s emblematic of the play itself. That is, a great, fun, entertaining evening as a satire. It’s very provocative, too, at the same time. The two co-exist. Audiences are provoked and challenged, and at the same time it’s very funny.

“That’s kind of the role of art. The residual is entertainment, but we go to the theater so we can actually learn something about our journey here. Learn something about ourselves, our community and getting along. To have a play that’s dealing with issues we normally don’t talk about … it really makes it even more gratifying.”

Pierce joined “Clybourne Park's” team of producers -- the Tony nominations list recognizes more than a dozen individuals or entities with that title for the show -- during the play’s Los Angeles run en route to Broadway, at a time when the production was undergoing considerable backstage turmoil – the abrupt defection of superproducer Scott Rudin and his producing partner Stuart Thompson.

“They were pulling together the commercial money for it to run on Broadway,” he said. “Two producers had dropped out. It opened up the opportunity to me.

“I had seen the play, so I had seen the product. I knew what it was. I jumped at the chance.”

Pierce also produced “Radio Golf,” an August Wilson play that was a Best Play Tony nominee in 2007.

The “Clybourne Park” company will gather Tuesday night for a champagne toast at the Walter Kerr Theatre, where the play’s 16-week engagement opened April 19, though Pierce said his “Treme” duties will keep him in New Orleans for the celebration.

“It’s a great feeling to be sitting on the set of ‘Treme’ working on this (and) you find out you got a nomination for a play you’re producing in New York,” he said. “I really feel proud to be an American artist today.”

“The 66th Annual Tony Awards” will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. June 10 on WWL-TV.